The Pride Factor
by TheShamyPerspective
Summary: A friend requested: Something happens to Shelly. Meanwhile, Ames is in Stockholm reasearching a newly found species so he goes to her and lies get said, wherein she says that she's proud of him and he travels back alone in dismay and guilt, with Amy eventually finds out.


In a world where the Human Resources Department called Sheldon in at five o'clock sharp, nonsense was everything he was expecting. He would be calling them out for their disruption, the dark purple bags under his eyes more than highlighted his disrupted schedule.

If it was five in Pasadena, there was a good chance Amy was still up. Why she had to be in Stockholm on this particular day, he wasn't sure, but her presence would've at least helped him remain calm...

Not that he wasn't calm, he did no such thing wrong. At least, that's what he kept telling himself all throughout the morning, even mumbling it in the car ride with Leonard.

Sheldon could see his roommate fidgeting still, his grip on the wheel wavering. He rolled his eyes, if he were Leonard he would surely be worried, but then again, he had been known for being blind sided at times...

All too soon Leonard pulled into the familiar parking lot and with a final chant of assurance to himself Sheldon got out of the car. His hands weren't shaking, his expression calm and steps steady. The only sign of emotion was his extremely accelerated heart rate.

He hadn't felt like this since he and Amy shared their mutual good bye kiss some three weeks ago.

His thoughts immediately came to a halt the moment his eyes laid on the one solemn expression in the room he was designated to arrive in. Surely the youthful face shouldn't have appeared so... terrifying, for lack of a better word.

Sheldon's hands were sweaty as he cautiously took a seat across from it.

One pair of formal greetings later and the nameless face leaned forward. Gulping, Sheldon debated for a moment whether to bring the issue up but his hesitance did not stop the words from tumbling out of his mouth.

"Uhm... excuse me, Mrs...? I find it very discomforting that I do not know your name..." his voice was meek, to say the least.

"Dr. Cooper, let me put this simply for you." eyes slit and crossed hands, the woman was as sympathetic as a brick wall.

"Learning my name is unnecessary for you, as the new lead voice of Human Resources I am required to call you in here for a particular reason-"

With a grumble, Sheldon added "I don't see how this has to do with me learning your name-"

"Dr. Cooper, you're fired." her tone flat, the woman pressed her lips together and relaxed back in her chair. The relief was practically radiating off her.

When Sheldon hadn't said anything yet, the woman proceeded to explain how his nonsense was and had not been tolerated by their particular establishment, emphasizing the importance of how "ridiculous" his suggestion boxes evidently were.

Sheldon stared back in a discomforting silence.

"You... you can't do that!" his weak protest, as expected, aroused the woman in no such way and she shooed him out in quite the hurry.

Passing by his previous office, seeing it all cleared away had him feeling as empty as the very first vodka bottle.

What would Amy think?

#

Twenty four hours since the demolishment of over half of Sheldon's life and dedication, a sudden decision had him taunted by a horrible bout of nausea; his pockets empty, but his spirits even more so disgruntled.

Time was no object.

When Sheldon felt he had enough energy and the plane's turbulence lessoned slightly, he turned his head to find a woman sitting across the aisle, with eyes not nearly as lovely as Amy's but the color all the same.

The longer he kept looking, the more he began to question why everything about this woman was reminding him of Amy. The warmth of her smile, the conservative of her dress...

Eventually the slight rocking of the plane and the thought of Amy lulled Sheldon to sleep.

#

"I am not... tired." Amy breathed quietly, followed by another yawn in a series of close to a dozen. Her back ached, her current hotel room was seemingly trying to freeze her alive nd her eyes burned from staring, waiting, and watching.

Silence.

This new species, Amy admired once she stood, was nothing short of ground breaking for th naturalists. She towered over it, hovered cautiously and reeled her mind to stay in focus. The furry creature stared up at her with a twinge of curiosity in its eyes. They shimmered a shade of grey that was warm rather than cold, comforting.

Sniggering, the creature promptly scurried away as if it was as done with the day as she was.

Amy shook her head slowly and smiled in the way she always did whenever Sheldon did something adorably insane. Everything there in Stockholm reminded her of the man she loved, everything from the soap the hotel provided to the cloudless afternoon sky.

Coincidentally, an image of Sheldon flickered across her mind as she gazed at her current study nibbling on its arm stretched over its face. Compared to the rest of its body, its arm was relatively hairless and yet still cuter than one would expect.

Abruptly, Amy pulled off her gloves in exhaustion and locked the cage with the creature inside it. She also had yet to name it, but tired minds cannot make decisions, as they say.

Immediately after that, plopping down on her couch with a sigh, Amy could almost taste the sweetness of sleep on her lips; her mind appearing to consume her. Three knocks on her door and she was pulled under.

Twenty minutes later Amy was jolted awake by the annoying chirp of her phone. Groaning, she had to squint to even see the screen. Someone had taken her glasses off.

Not long after that and her phone disappeared from her sight as well. She'd recognize those hands anywhere, even nearly blind.

"Sheldon..." her breathing still heavy with sleep, Amy dared not move. Although Sheldon was not touching her, she could feel his presence behind her; his big body build almost too hard to ignore when his arm snaked around her. He was placing her phone back on her lap.

And instead of moving his hand, he dropped it to her thigh and there it remained. Other than a small flex of his finger, he did not move. Amy held her breath.

"What are you doing here?"

Sheldon gulped, the answer alluding him just as much. On impulse his lips moved and an unexpected stutter, followed by a stream of words he hadn't heard before, flowed out of his mouth in an uncharacteristically smooth manner for what he was about to do.

"I have some good news..."

The simplicity of Amy's breathing had Sheldon cringing, saving his pride was not worth what he was doing, but in a last attempt to save himself he went all in.

"...And what would that be?"

Amy's voice was so soft, her bundled up waist so fragile against his finger tips. Hesitating, Sheldon replied,

"...I got promoted at work..."

Sheldon missed the brilliant smile move cross Amy's lips he was so unfocused. Everything about the situation he was in had him feeling sloppier than a pig at war.

Amy turned in his arms, just barely missing his pained expression.

"Sheldon... I'm so proud of you..."

The worst part had to have been the congratulatory hug he cheated them both into once she said that. Pulling away, Amy stood up and Sheldon's heart began hammering once more. With a pleading gaze he begged her endlessly to join him in his journey home, and her reluctant decline had him dragging his head by his feet all the way back home.

That was the last Amy saw or heard from her boyfriend for two weeks time.

#

The fallout, Sheldon had predicted, surprisingly did not occur for a solid forty eight hours after Amy returned from her studies. Besides the apparent celebration the majority of Caltech's employees had from his absence, Leonard assured him he would be missed. This was when Sheldon knew he was toast, surely someone would spill beans.

Each and every one of his friends, however, was devoid of any breath on the subject. Amy was oblivious, as far as he knew.

Even so, this was not consulting to Sheldon in the least. With Amy back finally, he found himself very unable to refuse her eyes, so much so that he almost wished she wouldn't look at him. Almost.

She stood in his doorway presently, as if in a trance; her eyes never leaving him. Sheldon gulped.

"You're back," he practically, stunned into silence the moment she walked past him. Her arm brushed his just barely, and the more he dwelled on it, the more the room began to spin.

"Someone missed me," Amy joked gently with a wink his way. After all this time it was utterly impossible not to find her adorable in every way imaginable.

"Uhm..." Sheldon spat his response and watched silently as Amy began taking off her sweaters one by one until she was clad in no other than his favorite flash t- shirt (he wondered where that went). Her fingers clenched and unclenched its hem slowly before her eyes met his intensely.

"What are you doing?"

"Just getting comfortable."

"Okay."

Amy's raised eyebrow, while having made Sheldon all the more uncomfortable, served as a foreshadow into her mind. Her behavior was rarely this questionable, her eyes seldom intimidating in such a way. He sat beside her in his jumble of thoughts and breathed in deeply.

"Why?" he asked after a moment and the smirk that appeared on Amy's lips had him doing a double take.

"Because you of all people deserve it, after all your hard work..." Instead of continuing said speech, Amy bit her lip and moved closer to him, their thighs touching in the most discrete manner possible.

Sheldon hadn't a chance to reply, his eyes hovering over Amy's wandering hand up his leg and down it in a pattern that had him twitching.

"...Even after I lied?" Her hand clenched immediately at his words, squeezing his thigh muscle he was incidentally flexing. The smirk on Amy's face only grew, as opposed to the scowl he was expecting.

"Why not?" Amy asked, her hand still and gaze glued to him. "I suppose I could punish you for what you did, but you finally learned to come to me when you missed me, so it evens out."

"Uhm..." Sheldon, surprised, couldn't look away from her hand, it stopped moving, and he didn't know why.

"You know... I should actually punch you for this." Amy conceded, staring blankly as Sheldon pulled back in recoil. The way his hands tugged on his pants nervously had her shifting away slightly; her smile fading just barely.

"But of course I wouldn't do it in the conventional sense." Sheldon, although relieved slightly by her words, couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Oh please, what other ways are there?" his haughty tone didn't surprise Amy, an had her squirming in her chair when it should have been the other way around.

Less confidently, she said

"I was thinking I could... punch you, in the mouth-"

"Why on Earth would you do that?!"

"...with my mouth, softly..." The words finally out of Amy's mouth, foreign to them both, were very, very quiet. The silence that followed remained for several minutes.

"I miss it..."

Amy began picking at invisible lint on her pants when Sheldon's face didn't cease contorting in confusion. Eventually, he asked "What?"

"Never mind," Amy rushed, tripping figuratively over words. "the post is you lied and-"

Sheldon saved her.

"No, tell me what you meant." his stern tone had Amy winded instantly but meant little compared to the way he was looking at her, and despite all this, she still felt as if she were drowning.

"...No, I shouldn't have mentioned it."

Amy stood up then, but froze at a cool sensation on her arm.

Sheldon was willing her to stay with a simple touch.

And although she relented, that didn't mean Amy would tell him what was on her mind. When she said down, the silence persisted for several more heartbeats until Sheldon said quietly

"It's alright, I want to kiss you too..."

Amy's mouth opened, closed, and reopened more times than Sheldon could count. In the end, all that came out was "really?" in total disbelief.

Sheldon leaned in closer at her speechlessness, inches from her face, and smiled gently. "Well of course." and made no further move.

His breath tickled Amy's lips as she applied all her focus on not lunging too hard forward. Licking her lips, the uncertainty in her eyes was evident, still she captured his lips with hers in the kiss they both had been building up to since their very first one.

...And Sheldon smiled into it, sighing contentedly.

Maybe this wouldn't ruin everything...


End file.
